Silvia Santucci is the designer and founder of Seance Jewelry. She uses her background in art and photography to create her fabulous pieces. Married to a wildly creative musician, they have a hilarious young son and live in the town of Fairfax, California, affectionately known as ‘Mayberry on acid’. Here are Silvia’s answers to some jewelry-relevant questions:

What is your favorite item of jewelry that you own?

·             My engagement and wedding ring: we bought them from a place where they were made the old-fashioned way, formed in the original molds from the 20’s. The engagement ring is a 1-carat white diamond in a platinum setting that is actually reminiscent of the Chrysler building – that’s what they said…  And for the wedding ring, we chose a simple platinum band.

What is your favorite item of jewelry that you inherited?

·             A gold pentagonal locket that belonged to my mother that has a baby picture of myself and one of my sister so that when it closes we are actually kissing. (Chuckle.) The front is engraved with an image of the Virgin Mary.

What single piece of jewelry would you like to own?

·             The little Eddie Beale pin that you see her wearing in the documentary, Grey Gardens, and presumably throughout her life. I like the way she used it, because sometimes it would be in her headpiece or she would use it to join two pieces of fabric for a skirt. I just liked that it was always a part of her outfit somehow.

What is the most impressive item of jewelry you have ever seen?

·             Has to be the Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis charm bracelet. I just have always liked the idea of a piece of jewelry that you can add fragments of your life to, saying where you’ve been in your life. It’s almost like Instagram, hhhh, it’s like an old-fashioned Instagram.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

·             I get a lot of inspiration from classic films which you can tell by the names of the collections. I get inspiration from the society we are living in and how we process things that happen: for instance, my pill necklaces were inspired by the epidemic of use and abuse of opiates and pharmaceuticals, one way that we deal with our societal problems. I am kind of obsessed that these pills can appear to take away your pain temporarily but they are the agent of your undoing as well. Maybe I’m glamourizing a bit but it works to bring awareness and focus to this phenomenon.